its certainly common practice to do final construction drawings in Layout. But do one need those converted to dwg?
Not in my workflow at least.
I never had a request to present construction drawings as dwg, only main drawings such as facades, plans and sections. It’s all for as-build documentation for the customer and underlay for consultants.
The consultants are happy to look at the pdf to see measurements and room names. The customer as well, all though getting some text layers from Layout into the dwg would be cool.
If one exports a dwg from Layout the text and measurements will turn up in Paper space in that dwg.Combining that export with a proper dwg export from SU itself could be really cool, but I cannot see how it could be done except manually, copying the proper dwg that you guys make into modelspace of the exported dwg Layout makes, deleting the mess that Layout exports into model space first.
Trimble LayOut is the paperspace compliment to Trimble SketchUp’s modelspace.
Unlike AutoCAD, the inventors of SketchUp and LayOut decided to separate modelspace and paperspace into two separate applications which compliment each another.
LayOut’s files are a zip archive containing both embedded skp models and other resource files as well as the paperspace object data.
An exporter would either need to run within SketchUp’s process and read the .layout file, or be a standalone file conversion utility leveraging the LayOut C API to also read from the .layout file.
Theoretically it would. But a developer also needs to have access to an API that can write DWG binary format (unless they are an expert at AutoDesk’s proprietary format.) I do not know if there are any free 3rd party APIs for this.
I do not know for certain. The interconnectivity with DWG especially has always been lagging behind.
And the DWG import is very weird. It makes us choose only one of the paperspace views, and then converts all paperspace objects on a layer to a group instead of importing the paperspace layers as LayOut layers.
I dread what happen when I try to export from LayOut to DWG.
I got the idea. The main drawing is the most important part then. Yep we are still thinking how to do that, that will be very time-consuming and we want to ensure its a solid feature for everyone’s workflow rather than just “cool”
So Layout do allow users to export dim / text /leaders. That’s great to know. Yep that will allow user with AutoCAD LT or other CAD software to further edit and get the final drawing. I will try this workflow. Thank you
I will check these myself when I have the time but:
that wouldnt be as handy as if we would be able to use clipmasks as with viewports
when exporting from Layout to DWG? I haven’t tried importing dwg into layout for a long time but I don’t think it did, in the past. I hope so.
if the dwg reference changes will it be updatable in Layout? Ibwill also check it, but if it would, then that would allow us to export scenes from SU to dwg, overwrite the original exports and reload in LO to have an updated paperspace like workflow inside LO
For me, line is fine. I won’t be dealing with hatches in a workflow like this.
Section hatches though, they are absolutely needed.
I recently have. Choosing the lower option, one of the DWG paperspace views and checking the box to create a viewport for the modelspace.
We must choose only one paperspace view to import at a time.
The DWG layers are only imported (accessible) via the model space viewports.
No LayOut paperspace layers are created by the import.
All DWG paperspace objects are:
imported onto LayOut layer “Default”.
instead of being assigned to a named paperspace layer, are placed within unnamed groups. These groups are in an excessively nested hierarchy (apparently within a parent group for the whole import.)
The modelspace viewport suffers from a shift bug in recent SketchUp versions. It is shifted by some amount upward toward the top of the page and to the left.
A bit useless for a full workflow, though it might create a faster Layout workflow if DWG files are faster to import to Layout than Sketchup 3D viewports.
I actually tried that a long time ago and they were faster IF I imported the DWG to Sketchup first and then from Sketchup to Layout. So, each DWG was actually a 2D Skp file imported to Layout.
Layout would get faster, but the process was cumbersome. Maybe you could push it forward.
I don’t think it pays up as we speak, even if there are batch DWG exporters for scenes in Sketchup.
Yes. In Layout you dimension and place leaders and text on the actual page, on top of a viewport that contains the sketchup model.
When exporting that page to dwg, the Layout text and dimensioning lands in paper space, with a viewport to whatever Layout exports as a dwg representation of the Sketchup model.
One can turn off the layer for the viewport in Layout, and then export only the text and dimensions on that page to dwg.
Inside a dwg there’s a lisp for moving paper space elements into model space, scaling them according to the scale settings of that viewport. Can´t remember the name of that lisp right now. ( and not sure if moving dimensions into model space is important.
I guess the challenge in a workflow of getting annotation elements from Layout into the dwg export that you make out of SU, is to place the model correctly, so that the dimensions align with the export. Layout also provides no proper origo for its model space exports… so that´s a mess of epic proportions
This is greatly needed because it would encourage more accurate modeling and remove steps getting to permit ready drawings. Sketchup is so impressive but we have all been trained to produce drawings in cad. This is a great step forward. I’d love to test it for you some!
Hello Coraz,
I’m interested in testing your plugin. I’m having an issue exporting my SketchUp model to DWG. I’ve tried several times, even on a modern computer with a latest-generation i9 processor and an RTX Blackwell graphics card, but I still can’t export the model.
My model is quite heavy, as it’s part of my architecture thesis project. I’d really like to try your plugin to see if I can successfully export my sections.
